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Barracuda

By: Christos Tsiolkas
Narrated by: Grant Cartwright
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Publisher's Summary

Shortlisted for the 2014 Indie Awards

He asked the water to lift him, to carry him, to avenge him. He made his muscles shape his fury, made every stroke declare his hate. And the water obeyed; the water would give him his revenge. No one could beat him, no one came close.

His whole life Danny Kelly's only wanted one thing: to win Olympic gold. Everything he's ever done, every thought, every dream, every action takes him closer to that moment of glory, of vindication, when the world will see him for what he is: the fastest, the strongest and the best. His life has been a preparation for that moment.

His parents struggle to send him to the most prestigious private school with the finest swimming program; Danny loathes it there and is bullied and shunned as an outsider, but his coach is the best and knows Danny is, too, better than all those rich boys, those pretenders. Danny's win-at-all-cost ferocity gradually wins favour with the coolest boys - he's Barracuda, he's the psycho, he's everything they want to be but don't have the guts to get there. He's going to show them all.

He would be first, everything would be alright when he came first, all would be put back in place. When he thought of being the best, only then did he feel calm.

A searing and provocative novel by the acclaimed author of the international best seller The Slap, Barracuda is an unflinching look at modern Australia, at our hopes and dreams, our friendships, and our families.

It contains everything a person is: family and friendship and love and work, the identities we inhabit and discard, the means by which we fill the holes at our centre. It's brutal and tender and blazingly brilliant; everything we have come to expect from this fearless vivisector of our lives and world.

©2013 Christos Tsiolkas 2013 (P)2013 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Critic Reviews

"...Tsiolkas has written an absolute ripper." ( The Age )
"A comtemporary Australian masterpiece." ( Australian Bookseller + Publisher )

What listeners say about Barracuda

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  • 16-10-2017

Sense of uncomfort

Is it possible to enjoy a book if you don't like the main character?
Perhaps that's the reason I couldn't get into the book, at least for first half. As the complexities of the character unfold, it became easier.

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Every teenage boy needs to hear this

The emotion, the drive, the mood and the tribulations of Danny needs to be experienced by every teenage boy. This is a perfect coming of age story.

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Drama packed into the thinking process of a young man from a migrant family .

This book is fast and descriptive and lefts little unsaid about the thinking emotions and nightmares of a young Australian from a migrant family as he process his inability to reach his dreams of being an Olympic winner for his country.
His feelings of being " a migrant gay kid " on a scholarship with boys from a more affluent society at a private school scar him and leave him with deep feelings of failure . Failure mixed with hatred and embarrassment about his father,and a love affair with an educated " toff " a Scotsman in his late teens. A rare insight into these three sides of life.

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Confronting at times, but it grew on me

I loved the narrator in this book! He was excellent at representing the characters and their accents. The story was certainly tough going at times, language and themes fairly confronting. But I persisted with it and found the story to be wonderfully written with a message that all Australians can relate to. I really enjoyed the book in the end , despite almost giving up on it one early chapters.

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